A view of the new scoreboard and high definition video board at Stafford Field at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Fans attending Columbus East and Columbus North home football games this fall might notice a little brighter atmosphere.
Both Stafford Field at East and Max Andress Field at North will be illuminated by new LED lighting. Both fields also have new scoreboards in place.
The improvements came in recent weeks thanks to an initiative to upgrade those features by Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
“Both have been in our list for long-range replacement need,” said Brett Boezeman, director of operations for BCSC. “We actually considered the scoreboards and lights as a package deal, so we could go in there and do them once. They didn’t have LED lights, and bulbs are hard to find. They were part of a four-year plan.”
The lights are the same as the new ones at the East and North baseball and softball fields and the BCSC Soccer Complex.
“They’re highly efficient,” Boezeman said. “They’re programmable from our phones. The lights were a pretty high priority because they were at a point of failure. They were on their last legs, and parts are hard to find. We had some issues with them the past couple years, so this was a high priority for us. There’s no light bleed into the neighborhoods, so that will be welcome, especially at North.”
A view of the new scoreboard and high definition video board at Max Andress Field at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
The bottom of the scoreboards at East and North are static with LED lights and will have traditional features such as the score, time remaining, quarter, down-and-distance and yard line. The top of the scoreboards are full LED programmable and have the capability to display messages and advertisements.
Boezeman said the cost for the scoreboards came in at around $225,000 and were paid for through a combination of capital project funds (CPF) and savings from the recent East Athletic Project coming in under budget. That project saw upgrades to the Olympians’ baseball field and a new softball diamond at Clifty Park.
The football season is fast approaching. North will host a scrimmage against Greenwood on Aug. 16. East opens the regular season on Aug. 23, and the Olympians visit North for the Bull Dogs’ home opener on Aug. 30.
Boezeman said the new scoreboards also could show video replays in the future, but probably not this year.
“The high schools will have somebody in the booth who will program those,” Boezeman said. “They can run advertising. I think the athletic departments are pretty excited about the marketing and advertising they can do. There’s just a lot of opportunity there.”
